Welcome to the new school year! I am so very pleased to have the opportunity to work with your child this upcoming school year. One thing you will quickly learn about me is that I LOVE teaching—especially third grade. Watching third graders grow and blossom will hopefully be an amazing experience for you (and me!) Third grade is a very important transitional year—bridging the gap between the primary years and upper elementary grades. Over the years, I’ve established a program filled with new challenges and experiences that will help your child grow as a student and as a person. The full thrust of what will be covered this year will be detailed at Curriculum Night in September. This evening is a wonderful way to discover what we will be covering this year as well as an opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

It is very important for me to get to know your sons and daughters as individuals. With several students, this can often take a longer period of time than I would like. It would be very helpful and greatly appreciated if you could take some time between now and the first day of school, to jot a short note that will provide a little background information on your child. Please include however much or little as you choose. You might want to include strengths, areas of concern, interests, outside activities, etc. These notes are optional and will be used for no other purpose but to help me plan a program best suited to your child's individual needs, interests and learning styles. You may put notes in my office mailbox, send them with your son or daughter, or e-mail me at econnell@troy.k12.mi.us .Keeping parents informed about what is going on in our classroom is also very important to me. While I will keep our information updated on our class website, www.geniaconnell.com I also e-mail and text classroom updates, and book order/field trip/ special event information and reminders to those parents. Two notes below will help you learn how to best stay connected. Regarding email, please note for whom each address is for, such as home, dad’s work, etc.

I know the beginning of the school year is always a hectic time. To make it somewhat easier you can find a copy of our supply list on our class website. It is helpful if all markers, crayons, glue sticks, etc. are labeled before coming to school in order to avoid mix-ups and to help prevent “lost” supplies during the school year. No need to label folders or binders, we will label those in class by subject. Supplies can be brought to school and put inside students’ desks at Meet the Teacher day on August 31.

Enjoy those last remaining days of summer. I truly look forward to meeting and working with you this upcoming school year.